Songbook for One Voice with Piano Accompainment, Op. 13:
Moja piosenka Op. 13 No. 2
Między nami nic nie było Op. 13 No. 4
Widzę Cię zawsze we snach nocnych moich Op. 13 No. 5
Ona Op. 13 No. 6
Tęsknota Op. 13 No. 7
Ach jak mi smutno Op. 13 No. 11
Czyliż on zgadnie Op. 13 No.
Gdyby kwiatki to wiedziały Op. 13 No. 14

Second Songbook for One Voice with Piano Accompainment,Op. 14:
Zielona jabłonka Op. 14 No. 7
O zmroku Op. 14 No. 8
Bez Ciebie F-dur for a High Voice with Piano Accompainment

Five Songs for One Voice with Piano Accompainment, Op. 15:
Błąka się wicher w polu Op. 15 No. 3
Nie będę cię rwała Op. 15 No. 4
Siedzi ptaszek na drzewie Op. 15 No. 5

Two Songs for One Voice with Piano Accompainment, Op. 28:
Panieneczka Op. 28 No. 1
Astry Op. 28 No. 2:07

Three Songs for One Voice with Piano Accompainment, Op. 21:
Dola Op. 21 No.1
Dziewczę i gołąb Op. 21 No.2
Nie mów Op. 21 No.3

The repertoire of the presented album is made up by nineteen songs by Aleksander Zarzycki (1834–1895) from opuses 13, 14, 15, 21 and 28 and by a miniature without opus to the words of Zacharjasiewicz interpreted by Dorota Radomska and Monika Polaczek-Przestrzelska. The artistic values of Aleksander Zarzycki’s songs were noticed by Władysław Żeleński, who wrote the following about that output: ‘It is his songs that we value the most, [...] he enriched our repertoire with genuine gems of inspiration. Zarzycki turned out to be a true poet in them […]. These are indeed diamonds with impressive brilliance and artistic setting. Everything about them is sophisticated and noble.’

The selection of excerpts from the collection of Zarzycki’s songwriting fits Dorota Radomska’s original anthology into the ‘exalted’ style, typical of belated Polish Romanticism. The period in which the selected and recorded songs were created (1868–1895) is a time asso-ciated with salon culture, poetic formation, and musical epilogue era. We perceive them as reflective music, somewhat dreamy, already close to modernism.

Zarzycki’s vocal legacy is yet another evidence that earlier ideas – Romantic – were still going strong in the post-insurgency situation of our country, although supported by Positivism. What is more, they were reborn with even more power precisely during the composer’s mature creative period and at the end of his life. The mainstream of music performance of the Positivist period was distinguished by sophistication, but also by certain distance. The aesthetics of those times must have influenced Zarzycki’s piano interpretations. However, such restraint on stage is desirable also today while presenting his songs. The idea is to bring contemporary vo-cal performance closer to the creator’s idea, concerned about the perfect harmonization of all the components of his miniature ‘gems’ and ‘diamonds’ for one voice with piano.

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Data premiery: 01.12.2023